BootBlock wrote:Starting to get used to Blend now. Currently working on styling the category combobox.

Also found out that text can be gradiented. Didn't know that. I like.

Make sure it doesn't burn the eyes if it IS gradient'd. Should be a good contrast to the background, so set-themes will need to be done, or think of some way to let the user specify a background + whatnot, but that might be painful.

Zallist wrote:Make sure it doesn't burn the eyes if it IS gradient'd. Should be a good contrast to the background, so set-themes will need to be done, or think of some way to let the user specify a background + whatnot, but that might be painful.

The default theme will have a subtle gradient of some kind, although themes won't be configurable via Comical itself. Themes will be distributed as a separate file so users can pick and choose. Not 100% sure on how it'll work as I need to work with WPF more.

Re-did it and I'm back to where I was. Except the comics list fades in/out when the mouse enters/leaves. Spent ages trying to get rid of that stupid border around the combobox - no luck.

You could use Windows Task Scheduler to do period backups. Just have it link to a quick program which does a Full Backup. (if you want, you can try for an incremental backup system, but then that would be adding to your already huge repetoire or random programs from random tasks)

I use a 2.5" HD for back-ups, so back-ups would need to be done with manual intervention anyway.

Right then!

The border around the combobox did my head in, so I went back to the listbox and... I've got it animating. Woo. As it's a listbox, the selected category (unless it's the very first one) doesn't actually show when the listbox shrinks back down to its single-line height. I need to work out how to cross the listbox with a combobox without using any code.

BootBlock wrote:I use a 2.5" HD for back-ups, so back-ups would need to be done with manual intervention anyway.

Right then!

The border around the combobox did my head in, so I went back to the listbox and... I've got it animating. Woo. As it's a listbox, the selected category (unless it's the very first one) doesn't actually show when the listbox shrinks back down to its single-line height. I need to work out how to cross the listbox with a combobox without using any code.

The combobox more-or-less does it, so it must be possible somehow...

If you wanted some way to Sync, you could use SyncToy to make the synchronizations, and USB Safely Remove to launch SyncToy whenever an external device is plugged in.

I just have USB Safely Remove calling SyncToyCmd.exe whenever an update to my working folder is made on my USB, and it copies it over to my computer's HDD.
Anyways, this is just in case you want more automated backups, since I find it best to always have a backup of anything I'm actively working on.

I use SyncBack for backing up. Connect portable HD, run app, run the profiles I want to back-up, then leave it going.

I don't really back-up things I'm working on as I've lost data like two days ago about twice in the last 9 years.

In other news...

Testing out Comica in Windows XP. The executable has bloated up massively to around 300KB, so I'm wondering if the theme background has somehow gotten embedded within the app itself. So, in comes XP. Going to run just the executable (minus the Comica app-data folder) and see if it works. Once I've installed .NET 3.5 + WPF in the virtual machine, anyway.

While that's installing away, I've decided to start working on the code to get the comics database loaded and listed within the interface. Well, the loading code only took a couple of lines - now, to get it displayed...

Main = New BiQubic.Libraries.Comic.Comics(Common.Locations.File.Comics, Common.Locations.File.ComicsUser, Common.Locations.File.ComicsVersion)
If Main.Load Then
Console.WriteLine("Comics database loaded successfully.")
End If

Getting the comics listed in the display was stupidly easy. Yay for databinding.

Next thing I'm currently working on is allowing the listboxes to be resized. Means adding grid definitions, but eh, should be quick enough to do.

Screenshot included. The thumb within the scrollbar hasn't been styled yet, so looks somewhat out-of-place. The vertical bar itself isn't transparent enough, and should probably have rounded ends. Will sort that out after I hit Submit on this post...